Killer stabbed teen in jealous rage

VICTIM: Eighteen-year-old Warren Rosillo was stabbed to death at a party in Pakuranga in July 2011.

A knife-obsessed 17-year-old stabbed an 18-year-old in a jealous rage at a birthday party before checking himself into the Heritage Hotel to hide from police.

Theodore Derrick-Hardie, now 18, entered a surprise guilty plea on what was to be the first day of his murder trial on Monday, in the High Court at Auckland.

Derrick-Hardie's name was suppressed until this morning and his lawyer Barry Hart didn't seek to have it extended.

Details of the brutal murder of Warren Rosillo were read to the court this morning.

Crown lawyer Warren Cathcart said Derrick-Hardie had been carrying knives around for months before the killing in July 2011.

In November 2010, he and a friend were driving around when they heard a fight was taking place nearby.

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Derrick-Hardie, who was sitting in the back seat of the car cutting a can with one of his knives, "insisted" on being taken to where the fight was.

In late 2010, Derrick-Hardie pulled a knife on a boy at a party they were both attending and advanced on him before the boy ran away.

In June the following year Derrick-Hardie and his girlfriend, whose name is suppressed, went to meet his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, who they had been exchanging abusive text messages with.

Derrick-Hardie armed himself with a machete and gave the girlfriend a pocket knife, but the meeting never happened.

On July 21, last year, Derrick-Hardie bought a 19cm Lebendwell folding knife from King of Knives. His girlfriend broke up with him the next day after she found photos of the accused's ex-girlfriend on his computer.

During the fight they had, he said the break-up was all his ex's fault, and he would "find her and slice her throat".

On July 29, the night of the murder, Derrick-Hardie went to a friend's birthday party in Pakuranga. Rosillo, who did not know Derrick-Hardie, was also there, as was his now ex-girlfriend.

At about 10.30pm, Rosillo and the girl were flirting and talking.

Derrick-Hardie asked her to go outside with him and they began fighting.

Rosillo tried to defuse the situation, but when Derrick-Hardie accused the girl of being unfaithful to him she got angry and kissed Rosillo.

Derrick-Hardie grabbed him around the back of the neck, pulled him closer, whipped a knife out of his trouser pocket and stabbed Rosillo several times in the head, chest and abdomen.

Rosillo staggered onto the road while his friends tried to help him.

Derrick-Hardie fled the scene.

Rosillo died of the stab wounds.

Minutes after killing Rosillo, he began texting his friends telling them about the killing and instructing them to say they hadn't seen him that night.

He told one friend the cops would not get him.

Police found Derrick-Hardie the next night in a room at the Heritage Hotel.

Derrick-Hardie, who was remanded in custody today but has been on bail for most of the time since the murder, will be sentenced in September.